Analysis Of Henrik Wolff 's ' Bullet 's The Brain '

There is a big difference living a life actively, and living a life passively. Once people start living a life passively, they tend to become too comfortable and committed to their life, which is devastating because they will never amount to their full potential. As for a life that is being acted-upon they are self – improving and opening new doors to experiences they never thought they could do. In Carol Dweck’s article “Brainology” describes two different mindsets students may have and how each can affect a student’s ability to reach a successful life. Also in connection with the mindsets based on Adrienne Rich speech “Claiming an Education” she argues about what receiving and claiming an education means. In the wake of these findings I come to learn that I had a fixed mindset, which only allowed me to receive an education. But now recognizing and understanding the “Growth Mindset,” I have decided to claim my education and see how putting the concept and process can help enlighten my academics and life.

Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” is about a man who is a book critic. He recalls his lost a memory of childhood after being shot in the head during a bank robbery. In the beginning of the story, Anders’ personality is revealed as cynical, narcissistic, and pompous. As the story reaches its end, Anders reveals another side of his personality that has been hidden from the beginning of the story. Anders is presented as an unsympathetic character, but the author uses different points of view in the story that makes the audience sympathetic towards him in the end. The author uses different third person perspective, symbolism, and setting to contribute to the theme of the story that a human’s personality changes by time, and environment or experience.

The story begins with the narrator who enters a 7-11 store at three in the morning to be exact. The cashier looks at him in a frightened way as if he was a criminal and becomes aware of every action that he does in the store. Of course, this is something that still goes on today, specially at 7-11 stores and I once experienced it. The cashier acted in a racist manner because he judges the guy due to his dark skin color and thought he was a robber. Although the narrator did understand the reason why the cashier behaved that way as he once worked in a 7-11 store and was robbed. The narrator started fooling around with the cashier by making him more frightened, but the cashier noticed that he wasn't a bad guy and offered him the Creamsicle for free.

“What the dead don’t know piles up, though we don’t notice it at first,” is an insight in Roger Angell’s descriptive memoir, “Over the Wall” (414). Emotional responses, stimulating thoughts and solid feelings are elicited through the use of personal reflection, regarding the death of his wife, Carol. This literary nonfiction, memoir uses the present tense, a constant tone, and an informal view to help add immediacy, by keeping the reader involved step by step as the author connects his personal present and past experiences regarding death. Readers are continually intrigued by Angell’s literary nonfiction essay, with provoking thoughts focusing on death, while using figurative language to keep Carol alive, with the use of vivid personal reflections and descriptive personal experiences.

Death is a topic that unites all of humanity. While it can be uncomfortable to think about, confronting death in unavoidable. “Dying” addresses that discomfort and universal unwillingness to consider the inevitability of death. Pinsky’s use of imagery, symbolism, and tone create a poetic experience that is like death, something every reader can relate to. In “Dying,” Pinsky describes how people are oblivious and almost uncaring when it comes to the thought of death. Pinsky is trying to convince the reader that they shouldn’t ignore the concept of death because life is shorter than it seems.

In The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders, it leaves us to figure out the braindead megaphones in our lives. Our society today, the biggest megaphone is the influence of our media. Whether we see them as braindead or not they influence our lives more than we seem to believe. From the style of our clothes to our political views mostly everything we do is influenced by the outside world in some way.

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

Tobias Wolff uses imagery in his short story “Bullet in the Brain” provides a visual portrait that captures attention. He clarifies in an interview with Sanford University what short stories require, “You want large results from it, and you 're compelled by its very shortness to using all your resources of language, form and understanding” (Schrieberg 1998). He uses language in the story offering instances of imagery to describe the media critic. Anders is portrayed as weary, and elegantly savage in his reviews. In each scene of the story Anders observes and uses biting words to offer his approval or distaste. He uses words to critique events while waiting with the customers at the bank, with the thieves and with the shot starting his recollections. There is a deeper vision into his brain not only with the speeding bullet but incite to words. The use of imagery in the short story provides a distorted image of the character Anders, not the real image of a man with the passion for words and the happiness they create.

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

In the short story Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff creates a sarcastically doughty character by the name of Anders. However, it becomes transparent that beneath this stone-cold portrayal of a man resides a troubled past. Throughout the story, Ander’s life struggles slowly begin to show through the cracks, giving the reader insight into what has turned him into such a hateful man. Another interesting character in the story is the man who takes charge of the robbery. He remains unnamed for the entirety of the happenings, and, although he is not alone in committing this crime, plays an important role in framing the theme of Wolff’s work. Wolff uses literary strategies such as imagery and extreme detail to pull the reader into the story, lock in their attention, and relate the symbolism and emotion of what’s happening. These devices have a great effect on the story.

The short story, "Bullet in the brain, by Tobias Wolff," Is told through third person narration, the narrator has unlimited omniscience. The protagonist is Ander's, He is suffering from ennui and alienation. Ander's seems to have distanced himself from others and created his own reality in his head instead of the world around him; causing the world around him to become like a story. Which he despises because of his line of work, a book critic. While doing so he constantly criticizes the world around him as if it is a story and ends up getting killed in the process. Through tone, setting, and style the author, Tobias Wolff, created a wonderful short story that compares to no other.

The short story “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff brings the reader to the attention of how one’s life can be influenced by “something as timid as a word” (Von Ancken). In this story, a protagonist is a man by the name of Anders, who is a book critic. The story starts with Anders arriving at the bank just before it closes. The line is really long and he is stuck in line with two loud ladies who drive him crazy with their stupid conversation. He is characterized as, “weary, elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed” (Wolff). He is also portrayed as a man who is miserable and constantly criticizing his surroundings. Even as he waits in the line at the bank, his sarcastic comments do not stop to represent his perspective of his disappointment of the world. When one of the tellers closed her window, Anders conveys a hatred towards the teller’s action by stating, “Damned unfair, he said. Tragic, really. If they’re not chopping off the wrong leg, or bombing your ancestral village, they’re closing their positions” (Wolff).

In the poem "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" Emily Dickinson exposes a person's intense anguish and suffering as they sink into a state of extreme madness. The poem is a carefully constructed analysis of the speaker's own mental experience. Dickinson uses the image of a funeral-service to symbolize the death of the speaker's sanity. The poem is terrifying for the reader as it depicts a realization of the collapse of one's mental stability, which is horrifying for most. The reader experiences the horror of the speaker's descending madness as the speaker's mind disintegrates and loses its grasp on reality. "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,"

I read the article called “Secrets of the Brain” by Carl Zimmer from the February 2014 issue of National Geographic. Zimmer told of a story of a 43 year old woman named Cathy Hutchinson suffered a massive stroke which caused her to lose movement ability, becoming completely paralyzed, and lost her ability to speak. Her doctors didn’t know if she was brain-dead or still mentally there, until one day Hutchinson’s sister asked Hutchinson if she could hear and understand her and Hutchinson looked up with her eyes to answer yes and to let her sister know that she was still there and could understand her.

The book Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain by Elio Frattaroli, M.D. Explains why medication isn’t enough when treating mental illness. The Talking Cure by Susan C.Vaughan explains why traditional therapy offers a chance for long-term relief more than any other drug. In this essay, I will write about what I have learned from both books, and I will provide examples of how effective therapy is and the impact that can do on clients. I will explain why medication is not always enough for clients suffering from mental illness. Also, I will compare the content of both books with the Comer’s psychological models.